360 turns: Multiple converging narratives in film

Fernando Meirelles' acclaimed film 360 (trailer HERE) combines many stories into one, linking characters from different cities and countries in a suspenseful and moving tale of love.  With a cast headed by Anthony Hopkins, Jude Law, Rachel Weisz and Ben Foster, 360 showcases the City of God director in fine form.

To tie in with the cinema release of 360 on August 10, we look further into the idea of multiple story lines intertwining and coming together at the end. You'll meet plenty of interesting characters along the way...

Short Cuts (1993)

The master of the ensemble cast, director Robert Altman, assembled his finest ever cast for his adaptation of Raymond Carver's short stories that deal with the lonely afflictions of Los Angeles suburban residents. Tim Robbins, Jack Lemmon, Robert Downey Jr, Tom Waits, Andie MacDowell, Fred Ward, Julianne Moore, Matthew Modine, Lili Taylor, Chris Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Anne Archer, Madeleine Stowe and even Huey Lewis form a shatterproof backbone to this acclaimed gem.

Pulp Fiction (1994)

Focused on the completely separate lives of two mob hit men, a boxer, a gangster's wife, and a pair of restaurant robbers, this story intertwines four stories of violence and redemption. These storylines are linked to one another as the incidences in one storyline have an impact on some of the occurrences in the other story lines.

Traffic (2000)

The film revolves around separate stories that are connected in one way or another. A conservative politician and the US drug czar learns that his daughter is a drug addict. A wife struggles to save her husband's drug business, while two DEA agents protect a witness with inside knowledge of her husband’s business. A corrupt, yet dedicated cop finds out his boss may not be the anti-drug official he made himself out to be.

Snatch (2000)

This film unravels the day-to-day lives among the characters to eventually show how their lives intertwine.  Anunauthorized and illegal boxing match is somehow connected with a stolen diamond.  In the beginning, the two storylines seem to have nothing to do with each other, but eventually the two slowly start to come together to form one interlocking plot.

Love Actually (2003)

This is the story of nine people connected to each other using one unifying emotion—love. Among the nine stories, are David, who is the newly elected British prime minister, falls for a young worker from his office, Sarah, a girl who cares for her mentally ill brother so much it affects her love life, and Harry, a married man who is attracted to his new secretary. The stories surprising cross paths in one way or another.

Boogie Nights (1997)

The world of pornography has never been documented with this many stars before or since. Paul Thomas Anderson (who also wrote and directed Magnolia and There Will Be Blood) dissects the cutthroat world of the dirtiest business of them all in seedy 1970s and 1980s California. So many people are exploited but it's Burt Reynold's porno film director character that steals the show (and an Oscar nomination in real life).

Crash (2004)

A group of Los Angeles citizens, with extremely separate lives, somehow collide into each other by the intertwining stories of race, loss and redemption.  The different characters with different cultural backgrounds are webbed together in various crisis situations that, in turn, expose racial prejudices throughout the film. Crash scooped the Best Picture Oscar that year.

360 (2011)

This film effortlessly merges multiple stories into one, linking characters from different cities and countries in a suspenseful and moving story of love. While the story begins in, Vienna, the film makes its way through Paris, London, Bratislava, Rio, Denver and Phoenix with multiple storylines forming one overall intertwining story.

Follow the stories for yourself with 360 – in cinemas August 10^th. Trailer and stills HERE.

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